A way forward for the Cyber Ed Project
Cross-posted from my weblog.
HOW can we make the controversial Cyber Education Project (CEP) of the Department of Education (DepEd) more attuned to Philippine realities on the ground? I already discussed opposing views on the CEP, its upsides and downsides, and the institutional requirements to make it work. Let me outline how we can move it forward.
Its core should focus on high school. The technology is best suited to high school students. At that level, having the country’s top scientists, mathematicians and educators as resource persons will make sense. And by doing so, it will dramatically bring down the cost, probably in the neighborhood of its original P5-billion price tag.
It should go hand in hand with the Dynamic Learning Program (DLP). If the DLP can work in a small peripheral school like the Jagna, Bohol-based Central Visayas Institute of the Bernido couple, it can work in most other rural high school outside the 1st and 2nd-class cities of the country. But the DepEd must reengineer its policies around the DLP.
It should be made optional for the elementary level. As it stands, the CEP is the wrong response to the wrong problem. This has two dimensions:
A way out of the margins
Crossposted from my weblog.
FOR about five days now, I’ve been running a survey on the following question: “Are you in favor of changing the name of Plaza Quezon to Plaza Arejola?”
Polls like these are unscientific, with my mostly anonymous readers being the universe of respondents, and actual respondents being equally unknown, except for those who explained their votes, like Bikolano writer Maryanne Moll and Irvin Sto. Tomas, a masteral student specializing on the Filipino language who I believe runs the most popular blog hereabouts.
Nonetheless, the verdict is loud and clear: as I write this with two days to go, only three of the 27 respondents (11%) agreed with the proposition; the rest thumbed it down.
Let me offer two reasons as to why this is so, after conversations with people like neophyte Councilor Nathan Sergio, Inquirer correspondent Johnny Escandor, his Bicol Mail editor Joe Perez and Ben Barrameda: One, Gen. Ludovico Arejola, a native son of Naga who led the resistance movement against the American invaders more than 100 years ago, remains a largely unknown figure in this city; and two, some people know him too well to believe he is not worthy enough to displace the late President Quezon from one of Naga’s most important seat of honor.
The real state of Philippine education
Crossposted from my weblog.
ONE of the more popular computing terms while I was in college 20 years ago was GIGO, shorthand for “Garbage In, Garbage Out.”
Not sure if it is still being used, I googled and found out that this aphorism “has fallen out of use as (computer) programs have become more sophisticated and now usually have checks built in to reject improper input.”
This once-popular term came to mind when I reflected some more on President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) last Monday, especially the parts that concerned education. In my previous post, I tackled how a policy reversal on teacher hiring instituted by Education Secretary Jesli Lapus negates the president’s claim that her administration has been investing on better teachers.
This demonstrates that policies are equally powerful inputs into the learning process, very much like Ms. Arroyo’s penchant for the billions of pesos invested on “social safety nets” that include public education. But unlike modern computer programs, there are no such checks in place that would automatically reject garbage policies like what Lapus has instituted.
‘Simpleng buhay’
Crossposted from my weblog.
UPON invitation by DILG Regional Director Blandino Maceda, I made a quick trip to Legazpi last Wednesday to attend a meeting of city and provincial planning officers in the Bicol region in preparation for the rollout and eventual implementation of the JMC.
For those working in the Philippine local government sector, JMC is shorthand for Joint Memorandum Circular No. 1 series of 2007 issued last March 8 that rationalizes planning, investment programming, revenue administration and expenditure management among LGUs – your provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays.
This effort is long overdue. One tidbit of info: before this new policy, Philippine local governments are actually required to produce 22 different plans – from the standard land use and local development plans to sectoral plans for coconut zone development, nutrition, culture and arts, food security, shelter and so on.
This is the product of many agencies working independently of one another, trying to push their own mandates and institutional agenda. It is not too different from the so-called 24 independent republics that comprise the Philippine Senate. Or the fondness of congressmen for “unfunded mandates” — laws that are nice to hear but costly to implement, as Palawan Rep. Abraham Mitra complained about. But I digress and just reserve the topic for another entry.
Duang suhestyon manongod sa lenguaheng Bikolnon
Crossposted from my weblog.
KAN AKO nag-eeskwela pa sa UNC High School Department mga duang dekada na an nakakaagi, an unikong pagkakataon na pinag-adalan mi an kulturang Bikolnon nasa lindong nin sarong subject sa 4th year na pig-aapod Bicol Culture. An textbook mi kaidto Readings on Bicol Culture na kun dai ako nasasala pigsurat nin sarong pading Jesuita.
Dai ko sierto kun an high school curriculum ngonyan, na pigbago ni depuntong Senador asin Education Secretary Raul S. Roco, igwa pang probisyon para sa siring na subject. Pero pigsambit ko ini bilang reaksyon sa column ninda Victor Dennis Nierva asin Tito Valiente kan nakaaging semana na nagluwas sa Vox Bikol, asin sa reaksyon ni Kristian Cordero na mababasa sa saiyang weblog, asin puede ser lumuwas man sa diaryong Bicol Mail kun saen siya kolumnista.
Nahahadit si Vic sa posibilidad na mapara an satong tataramon, kabtang kan sarong global trend kun haen saro sa labing 6,000 na lenguaheng nasa listahan kan UNESCO an nagagadan kada ikaduang semana. Para saiya, dakula an kontribusyon kan pag-murder sa Bikol kan lokal na media sa trahedyang ini.
How Philippine localities stack up in education
Crossposted from my weblog.
WANT to have an idea how the various cities and provinces in the Philippines stack up in terms of academic performance?
The image to the right summarizes the results of the National Career Assessment Examination (NCEA), which the Department of Education administered to graduating high school students in December 2006, both from public and private schools. The results were released last May.
Some quick observations:
1. Urban areas generally fared better than rural areas, as city schools divisions outshone their provincial counterparts. Access to bigger local resources, like the Special Education Fund (SEF) tax money, is probably one of the factors here.
2. Being a city helps, but it doesn’t guarantee high performance. For instance, only Makati and Marikina among the NCR cities barged into the top 15, showing that academic performance is not all about the money.
3. Provincial divisions can do well. Exhibit “A” would be the Samar-Leyte provinces: they are not resource rich but they have done very well, taking four of the top 10 and six of the top 15.
4. Our little effort to improve education in Naga City acquited itself well, I think. The city placed ranked 8th among 103 city schools divisions, and 14th among 188 city and provincial schools divisions. By comparison, the next best city schools division in the Bicol came at 40th.
Feel free to share your own conclusions from the data.
It’s census time next month
Crossposted from my weblog.
FOR THE whole month of August 2007, expect a visit from the National Statistics Office (NSO) in connection with the 2007 Census of Population that it will conduct all over the country.
Last Tuesday, the Naga City Census Coordinating Board met to discuss preparations for this population count, which will cover all residents, both Filipinos and foreigners who have stayed or are expected to stay for at least a year in the Philippines. About 80 NSO enumerators — your friendly NSO census taker — will be fielded in Naga for this month-long activity.
It should have taken place in 2005 but did not — mainly for budgetary reasons and of course the impeachment battles triggered by the infamous Hello Garci tapes. When it was again postponed last year, Camarines Sur NSO provincial officer Eliza Solares told us, they were no longer expecting another census to take place, considering its nearness to 2010. But early this year, the national government had a change of heart.
By law, a national census must be taken every 10 years since 1980, in addition to other special counts mandated by the National Statistical Coordination Board. The last one held was in 2000, covering both population and housing counts.
Vox Bikol and its online quiz
Crossposted from my weblog.
QUICK: What is the English word for “baligang,” that dark violet bitter fruit that tastes better when shaken vigorously with salt?
- berry
- plum
- cherry
- grape
If you answered “berry,” you got it right, as I did when I took this Bikol quiz that forms part of the newly built online home of Vox Bikol. Vox is the weekly newspaper I used to edit and for which I now write a weekly column.
Unfortunately, that was one of the only four I got right out of 10, prompting me this terse message: “Kaipuhan po na mag-adal pa nin bikol.” (You need to study Bikol more.)
The site is still work in progress, Julma Narvadez said, thanks to the effort of Fr. Tebelin and the Ina nin Bikol Foundation, Inc. which now publishes the paper. Julma’s late father, Joe, used to be the Vox publisher when I was with the paper, until his untimely demise.
Read more
Those Casureco II prepaid meters
Crossposted from my weblog.
IN THE raging controversy at the Casureco II over an alleged P300,000 illegal disbursement used in the recent partylist election, one item that captured my interest is the purchase of some 100 prepaid meters by the current management, to the tune of more than P2 million, two years back.
Up to now, they remain unused, allegedly because of a software glitch.
Are we missing the forest for the trees here?
For a mere software glitch, the Casureco II management is letting a substantial capital investment, one that can bring it to stronger financial stability, rot away. This, I think, is an act more criminal than the rest.
I like this ‘fake’ Harry Potter series ender
Crossposted from my blog.
IF YOU haven’t noticed yet, there’s now a MyBlogLog widget at the bottom of my sidebar. I just followed Irvin’s lead here — and that included joining the PinoyBlogosphere community, on Bratyfly’s invite — and I’m enjoying the experience.
One of the stuff that comes with a MyBlogLog account is a header called “Hot in My Communities.” A fan of the Harry Potter series that is about to finally be unraveled on July 21, the top entry grabbed my attention yesterday as I was winding down work at the office. It is a link to an alleged fake version of J.K Rowling’s 7th and final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
To cut the crap, I downloaded it and immediately went to the ending, and read my way backwards, scanning about 100 pages or so.
For a fake Harry Potter, the stuff I read appealed to the sucker-for-happy-endings guy in me. I dunno how J.K Rowling’s official version would look like — I will still buy my eldest Ezekiel’s copy when the price becomes affordable — but this fake version is, to me, a good enough alternative Harry Potter universe. Especially if the original becomes dark as advertised.
As a final word, let me say this: whoever wrote this 659-page fake deserves some accolade. On first brush, it is a believable 659-page yarn; and writing all 659 pages organized into 34 chapters is no mean feat.
